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KISLEV, 5739 I DEC. 1978 .. VOLUME Xlll, NUMBER 7 THE Ew. IS H $1.25 in this issue Go Ius In A Free Society The Awareness Imperative The Stumbling Blocks also: The Bereaved Jew's Bill of Rights Torah Thoughts j by the late GERRER REBBE, ~"~T i Tiktin 1 i I I Letters to the Editor I i' ·1I THE JEWISH BSERVER THE JEWISH OBSERVER;, pub lished monthly, except July and in this issue August, by the Agudath lsrae\ of America, S Beekman Street, NPw York, N.Y. 10038. Second class Golus in a Free Society postage paid at New York. N.Y. Subscription: $9.00 per year; two The Awareness Imperative, Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg .............. .4 years, $17.50; three years, $25.00: The Stumbling Blocks, Aaron Twerski. .. ...... ... .............. ...... 6 outside of the United States, $9.SO The Bereaved Jew's Bill of Rights, Bernard Fryshman ................... 9 per year. Single copy, $1.25. Chanukah Gems, Rabbi Nasson Scherman.................. ...... ..... 13 Printed in the U.S.A. Tiktin, Chaim Shapiro..................................... ........... .. 17 Books in Review RABBI NISSON WOLPIN Challenge of Sinai .................................. ....... 25 Editor The Book of Ezekiel ................ ........ 27 Chanukah Crafts ............................... ..... .29 Second Looks at the Jewish Scene Editorial Board A Dirge For Shabbos in Boro Park . 30 DR ERNST L BODENHEIMER Chairman The Nobel Laureate: Not Our Lyrics, Not Our Singer....... 33 RABBI NATHAN BULMAN Letters to the Editor RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS Bombing Aushwitz/Yissachor-Zevulun/The Religious Compulsive .35 JOSEPH fRIEDENSON RABBI MOSHE SHERER A Poem, Avrohom Yishayahu Rotbard ......... ............................... 42 THE JEWISH OBSERVER doee not assume responsibllity for fthe Kashrus of any product or service advertised in its pages. Copyright 1978 DEC., 1978 VOL XIII, NO. 7 Typography by SoloGraphic Photocomposition Service Experiencing Golus in a Free Society Can it be Achieved? While the blessings of living in a free society are many and not to be gainsaid, there are inevitable dif ficulties this poses to the Torah Jew. Among them is the difficulty it brings to experiencing the feeling of golus required of every Jew, wherever he may be. RABBI YAAKOV WEINBERG, W'ti'71V, Rosh Yeshiva in Ner Israel-Baltimore, presented an anlysis of this theme at the recent national convention of Agudath Israel of America. "The Awareness Imperative," which follows, is based on Rabbi Weinberg's address. DR. AARON TWERSKI, a musmach of Yeshiva Ner Israel, currently a professor of law at Hofstra University in Long Island, NY, also addressed this theme at the convention. "The Stumbling Blocks," which follows Rabbi Weinberg's article is based on his presentation. Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg Experiencing Golus in a Free Society-Can it be Achieved? The Awareness Imperative "Experiencing Golus in Freedom-ls it Possible?" have G-d's guarantee that we will remain a people, could be paraphrased to express the real question: which perforce means that we will always know that we "Survival of Kial Yisroel in Freedom-Is it Possible?" are in golus. Indeed, the world is full of reminders to us because recognition of Go/us and Kial Yisroel's ex· regarding our golus status. But should we fail to take istence are one and the same, for Klal Yisroel cannot ex cognizance of these reminders, G-d has ample means at ist unless it is aware that it is in Golus. This is not mere His disposal to remind us .. , May we be spared their ly an option. It is a halachic reality, as the Ram ham ex harshness. presses it in the "Thirteen Ikrim." By definition, each Rabbi Meir Simcha Hakohein of Dvinsk, in his sefer, of these lkrim-basic concepts of belief-must be un· Meshech Chochma (Sidra Behar), analyzes in frighten derstood and accepted by every Jew who wants to be a ing detail the means by which G-d reminds us that we Jew. It is not possible to be a Yisroel if one denies any are indeed in golus, if we fail to ascertain this fact for one of them: ourselves. (A translation of this discussion in the Obviously, one cannot be a Yisroel without accep Meshech Chochma was featured in JO-Sept. 73.) Maintaining this awareness is no simple achievement, tance of the Torah, as presented through Moshe ... If one does not know of the existence of G-d, obviously for it is a complex challenge consisting of two aspects: there is no way that he could have a share in Taras first, an awareness that our current status is not Moshe ... If one does not know that G-d gave us the representative of our optimum way of life; that as we Torah, he cannot have a share in Taras Moshe ... If are today here, we are totally uprooted, estranged from one is not aware of Reward and Punishment, he cannot the way in which a Klal Yisroe/ is meant to live. The have a share in Taras Moshe. very essence of our existence is to be an Am Hashem (G-dly people), recognized as such by all, whose lives as The Rambam also includes belief in the advent of individuals and as a nation are totally imbued with Moshiach among hisThirteen Ikrim. Not only is it ax· Torah and Avodas Hashem (divine service). Here, in iomatic that a Jew believe and accept the truth, that G-d go/us, this can never be fulfilled in its entirety, and is going to send Moshiach to bring the Ge'u/ah, but if therefore we are not fully alive. circumstances delay his coming, he must anxiously The other aspects of go/us-equally difficult and await him. The requirement of this attitude is discussed equally essential-is that we Jews are not an integral in the Rambam's "Commentary on the Mishna" in part of the people amongst whom we live. There is an "Chelek" (Sanhedrin, Chapter Xi) and is also delineated "otherness" to us, a gulf of strangeness that cannot be in his halachic work, the Yad Chazaka: "Whoever does bridged, separating us from our compatriots. not believe in Moshiach or does not anxiously await his coming ... denies in the Torah of Moshe" (Hilchos The Y aakov Precedent Melachim: XI, I). The difficulty in maintaining both aspects of this The obvious implication of this is that if one does not awareness-that our lives are not complete in golus and know of the Coming of the Moshiach and does not anx· that we are different from those around us-is borne iously await its advent, he is not feeling go/us; and if out by an incident in the life of Yaakov Avinu. Let us one does not feel the pain of go/us-wherever he may be remember that Yaakov Avinu wa's capable of testifying -he is not a Yisroel. Stated positively, an awareness of regarding himself that in spite of living for twenty being in golus, recognizing the actuality of golus on the years with Lavan, the personification of falsehood and experiential level, is absolutely imperative to .cemaining evil, his ideology, faith, and character were not in the a part of Kial Yisroel. Thus, living in a free society is a least affected. (See Rashi in beginning of Vayishlach: direct threat to remaining within Kial Yisroel. We do "Garti .. ").He was able to say, "I remained the same 4 The Jewish Observer I December 1978 true Eved Hashem as I was prior to my exposure to their values, or live their lives. You are not part of them. him." Nonetheless, Yaakov Avinu faced one more You are not in your proper place; while there, you are danger that was not so simply overcome. not living your lives." We must use these days as This is recorded in a few remarkable passages in the Chazal had meant them to be used-to rescue us from Chumash that speak of a complete shift in attitude this hazard. The purpose of these fast days is not just to between Y aakov and the sons of Lavan, and a change in fulfill the letter of the laws of taanis (fasting), but to use Yaakov's own self-understanding. Yaakov had been them as springboards for delving into their meaning. working for his father-in-law, Lavan, for two decades, The Tisha B'Av kinos(lamentations) that we say are when he also for the same purpose-to remind us that no matter heard the words of Lavan's sons, saying, how we may assume that we are part of a land, we are "Yaakov took all that belonged to our father . .. amass eventually expelled from it; that there is no way that we ing this great fortune from our father's belongings." can ever be other than exiles, wandering to and fro, un And Yaakov saw the face of Lavan, and it was not til the coming of Moshiach. the same as it was yesterday and the day before. Utilizing this one approach is part of a larger con And G-d spoke to Yaakov, "Return to the land of cern. It may sound like a cliche, but that does not make your fathers and to your birthplace, and I will be with it any less true. Keeping Tisha B'Av as it should be kept you," (Bereishes 1-3) is part of learning to do all the mitzvos as they should What a remarkable chain of events\ Yaakov hears be done. In order to experience a Tisha B'Av properly the sons of Lavan claim that all his attainment was and to use it as Chazal had designed it to be used, it is taken from them ... he recognizes that Lavan is no necessary also to eat in the Succah, for example, with an longer a friend ..